The Kirksville Area Technical Center's nursing program will see higher tuition rates for the next school year.

Danielle Brown Kirksville Daily Express @danibrown_kde

The Kirksville Area Technical Center’s nursing program will see higher tuition rates for the next school year.

The Kirksville R-III School Board approved on Wednesday an increase to tuition for KATC’s adult and practical nursing programs for the 2017-18 school year.

The practical nursing program’s tuition will increase from $9,000 to $9,500, while the full-time adult program’s tuition will increase from $5,300 to $5,800. School Board members also approved to keep the secondary tuition rate at $2,050.

Kirksville Superintendent Dr. Damon Kizzire said the tuition increase is an effort to get the programs to sustain themselves.

Kizzire said when he spoke to a state nursing board last year, they informed him that the average tuition rate for nursing programs was about $12,000. He didn’t have a specific dollar amount for the tuition rate needed to self-sustain the programs, but he did say the district is getting closer to that number.

“We’re still quite a ways from (being self-sustaining) on the nursing side, but I think if we continue raising (tuition) — I don’t want to blow us completely out of the ballpark either with rates like that — but we need to get where it’s a self-sustaining program,” Kizzire said.

“I don’t want to make it so tough that kids can’t afford to go, but at the same time I need to continue raising it until we get to where we’re breaking even.”

In other business, School Board members approved the final budget revision for the 2016-17 school year.

The school district is expected to receive $27,653,670 in revenue and spend $29,886,336 by the end of the year.

Assistant Superintendent Tricia Reger said the revenues for the year will be slightly higher than expected, while the expenses will be slightly lower. Actual year-to-date numbers show the district has so far received $28,238,315 in revenue and has spent $28,610,829 this school year.

“That’s typically how we go into a budget, but I think we have done a good job with our expenditures this year,” Reger said.

Other approvals:

- The School Board approved a bid worth $18,410 from Butzer Mechanical Contractors, of Jefferson City, to renovate a handicap accessible bathroom at the William Matthew Middle School.

The bathroom will include a handicap lavatory, water closet, floor drain, handicap shower, grab bars and bench seat.

- The School Board approved the sale of the 2016-17 construction trades house for $215,000.

- The School Board approved a bid worth $11,520 from Harold G. Butzer, Inc., of Jefferson City, for a feeder pump and glycol installation for the HVAC system in the Early Childhood Learning Center.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.